"Sienna & The Cows" (Flashback to 1995)!!

"A long time ago on a farm far, far away...." (or, right here, actually) …

Way back at the very beginning of Straus Family Creamery, Vivien and I were hard at work, including (but not limited to) selling our products to local farmers markets, giving out samples of milk and butter, and telling our ‘organic’ story to (mostly) customers who really just listened so that they could get more samples of butter (and sometimes cheese). Viv worked the farmers markets in Santa Monica (she lived in LA at the time), and I did the Ferry Plaza in SF (which, at the time, was located in between lanes of traffic on the Embarcadero, some years prior to the Ferry Building being rebuilt).

Anyways, our customers were awesome. Early adopters. Those who looked at Mom’s hand-drawn cow logo and didn’t mind that it looked (thanks to our graphic designer’s poor interpretation) more like a goat than a cow (but that’s yet another story). Our customers were amazing … back then, there weren’t many stores that carried the milk (in awesome-but-cumbersome glass bottles) and so, they would return every Saturday morning to the market, to get some free samples of butter (lathered onto slices of freshly baked Acme bread) and ridiculously delicious (and short lived) cheddar and Jack cheeses (yet another story for another time). I can’t even begin to tell you how, especially in those very early days (and long before ‘organic’ … let alone ‘Straus’ … was a thing) just how much of a huge boost - both to sales and morale - our farmers market customers were. Farmers markets were a primary reason for our early success, building a future, one bottle at a time (literally) … talk about grass root marketing. Sigh … so many stories to tell.

For example, Nancy and her friend Weezy were early customers … and they were the dynamic duo who created Craigslist.org with Craig … then, in exchange for milk (and butter), they created SFC’s first website! I remember when we added our URL to our milk bottle packaging … back in 1995 (or maybe 1996 or 1997?), that was still pretty unheard of. I know, I know … “back in the good ‘ole days” …

And then (to the point of this post), there was Ken Beckman … Ken, who drove up nearly every Saturday all the way from near Half Moon Bay, to purchase a half dozen quarts of heavy whipping cream, so that he could make fresh ice cream with his two young kids, Sienna and Oren. Ken was a videographer, too, and was teaching his kids about organic food, sustainable farming and videography … and one day, Ken asked “Can we come up to the ranch and film your cows?” And, of course, I say ‘yes’ in a New York minute (I think that’s the saying … but what would I know, farm boy that I am??!!)

Fast forward what … 28 years??… (literally half a lifetime ago for me!!), and just today, Ken emailed me a copy of this long-lost video, which shows our Home Ranch, the dairy down the road (where the cow milking happens) and the very early days of the Creamery (where the milk was bottled and the butter churned). So many memories.

Here’s that film … narrated by Sienna (now in her 30s??), and her younger brother Oren was the videographer. Ken was the director.

It’s just … freaking adorable. Enjoy.

(Note about Sienna’s ridiculously cute refrain “Michael Straus’s cows” … the cows belonged to Pop and our brother … I was just the dairy’s ‘front guy’) ;)